Monday, November 9, 2009

Sheila Dikshit defends parole to Manu Sharma

Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday defended the decision to give two months parole to Manu Sharma, serving life imprisonment for the 1999 murder of model Jessica Lal.

"All was done according to the rules," Dikshit told reporters.

"Whatever has taken place is under the provisions of law. The decision was taken by a committee that included the jail superintendent, home secretary, Delhi government, Delhi Police and the Lt governor," Dikshit said.

"It is a right of a prisoner to apply for parole. The committee recommends a parole after reviewing a person's complete case," she added.

On Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and legal experts had slammed the Dikshit-led Congress government for releasing Sharma on parole after he was seen partying in Samrat Hotel's elite nightclub Lap late Friday.

Sharma, who is serving his sentence at the Tihar Jail here, was granted parole on the ground that his mother was seriously ill and he had to attend to family business matters.

His parole was further extended November 22 for 30 more days on Dikshit's recommendation to Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna.

On Saturday, his mother Shakti Rani held a press conference in the family-run Piccadilly Hotel in Chandigarh to give a brief on a national under-19 women's cricket tournament.

Her press conference further raised questions about the state of her health.

The tournament is being organised by the Chandigarh Women's Cricket Association and Shakti Rani is the association's general secretary.

Jessica was shot dead in a bar in south Delhi on April 29, 1999. The police arrested Manu Sharma alias Siddharth Vashisht, the son of a wealthy Haryana Congress politician Venod Sharma.